What world-changing scientific discoveries might we see by 2025? Will we have more energy technologies that move us away from fossil fuels? Will there be cures for cancer and other diseases? How will we get around and communicate? To make some predictions, the Thomson Reuters IP & Science unit looked at two sorts of data: current scientific journal literature and patent applications. Counting citations and other measures of buzz, they identified 10 hot fields, then made specific forecasts for each.

If Oscars are to be given to Futurist Films, then which ones will it be? In the 8th film of the series 'Film, Future and Futurists' we had a conversation with Futurist Josh Calder to see which 'future films' deserve awards for their contribution to the genre. The 'Film, Future and Futurists' series was produced by the Institute of Customer Experience in association with the World Future Society (Pondicherry Chapter).

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing an audio reading device to be worn on the index finger of people whose vision is impaired, giving them affordable and immediate access to printed words.

Hello, world. Meet Normal, the customized, high-end earphone manufacturer that’s looking to bring 3D printing to the mass market. From its offices and manufacturing facility in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, Normal is looking to sell $199 customized ear buds made to the shape of an individual’s ear.

Making roti, a traditional staple food for millions of people worldwide, is equal parts art and science. To achieve the unleavened Indian bread’s signature look, feel and taste, you need the right mix of ingredients (flower, water and oil), the perfect kneading and flattening method, and on-point heat and cook times.

US military researchers announced Wednesday they have awarded $40 million toward developing a new kind of brain implant that may help restore memories in wounded soldiers and civilians.

The Poppy project aims at building an Open-source humanoid platform based on robust, flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software.

Designed by the Flowers Lab at Inria Bordeaux and Ensta ParisTech (France), its development aims at providing an affordable and hackable humanoid robot for science, education, art and geeks.

A thimble-like device called 3DTouch that sits at the end of your finger and allows you to interact with the virtual world in three dimensions may render the indispensable computer mouse obsolete.

The way in which humans interact with computers has been dominated by the mouse since it was invented in the 1960s. However, when we use the device, we’re limited to two-dimensional movements. Anh Nguyen and Amy Banic from the University of Wyoming in the US have created an intelligent thimble that can sense its position accurately in three-dimensions and respond to a set of preprogrammed gestures that allow the user to interact with objects in a virtual three-dimensional world.

Sudha Kheterpal has been a professional percussionist for 20 years, so she knows how much energy goes into making a beat. Now, she wants to harness that energy to generate power. Kheterpal has invented the Spark--a device that sounds like a maraca but is as useful as a solar cell. It's an instrument with three chambers. The two on the outside are filled with beads. The one in the middle has a magnet that moves up and down a coil of copper wire, charging up a battery. Twelve minutes of play is enough to power an LED light for an hour.

We often associate infographics and emoticons with online content, but a new calendar invites people to create their own by putting pen to paper. Spanish designer Raquel Catalan has produced two Life Calendars that you can put up on your wall and draw on every day to make a unique record of your moods or love life.

6 Year Old Boy Hugs Mom For First Time, Thanks to the World’s First 3D Printed Myoelectric Arm

Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus VR in March 2014 for $4 billion brought a resurgence of interest in virtual reality to the mainstream, almost 30 years after the technology first entered the public consciousness. And while Oculus VR’s initial focus has been on video games, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has described the hardware as “the next major computing platform that will come after mobile.”

What is “beauty”? Granted, it’s a subjective observation, but then there are two very strong opinions on the question – “natural” and “designed.”

What is “natural beauty”? It’s an interesting question because it intersects with that of an even larger question of what is natural and what is “unnatural,” most of which has been affecting the biotech industry as it continues having to deal with annoying anti-biotech activists who believe the industry to be “unnatural” – whatever that’s supposed to mean.

Does your vision of the future depend on the city you live in? Do cities have their own 'personas' that influences its citizens?

Watch the first in the series ' Cities and the Future'. This series will explore how every city has its unique influence on its citizens' perspective of the future.

Coca-Cola has unveiled a new television commercial that comprises of short videos clips submitted by its fans. Called ‘This Is AHH’, it was put together by ad agency Wieden + Kennedy. To produce the 30-second long ad, the brand invited teens to submit their best interpretation of what it feels like to take a sip of Coke. According to Adweek, Coca-Cola received over 400 submissions, but only chose 40 to be featured in the ad. Stitched together like a Vine video, the ad shows some crazy ideas and interpretations by Coke fans.

From Darwin to Mozart, this data visualization of Daily Rituals: How Artists Work shows you how the super-achievers spent their time.

Created by Nana Adwoa Sey, Dot’s Dictionary is perfect for those who are learning about graphic design. The creator stated that this dictionary should “give the curious reader enough of an understanding of the vocabulary of graphic design”, encouraging graphic design students to learn more and apply their knowledge after exploring the site.

Time magazine ranked the 100 biggest cities for selfies … and the results may surprise you. At the top spot is Makati City and Pasig, Philippines with 258 selfie-takers per 100,000 people, followed by Manhattan, New York with 202 selfie fans.

Selfie, landscape or portrait, we tend to take a lot of photos — and some places are more conducive to snapping pics than others.

Google released a heat map that highlights the Earth's most photographed locales. Data included in Sightsmap comes from geolocated images uploaded by individual users to the Google Maps Panoramio service, which associates images with locations in Google Maps and Google Earth.

In the architecture world, glass is in. The skyscraper of the future is transparent. From the Burj Khalifa to the soon-to-be-completed Freedom Tower to the so-called "Invisible Tower" to the latest and greatest condos in New York City, the towering glass facade has become the norm. People must be loving all those views, right?Well, not exactly. According to a study from the Urban Green Council, practically no one looks out the windows. The group surveyed 55 glassy buildings around New York City and found that across the board, most of the occupants had drawn the shades.

OUR BRAINS RECOGNIZE THEM AS A DISTINCT, AND COMPLEX, "VISUAL LANGUAGE."

To encourage people to donate blood, ad agency Publicis Sao Paulo and Fundação Pró-Sangue have collaborated to create a special poster. Called the ‘Blood Charger Poster’, it serves two purposes—one is to allow people to charge their mobile phones, while the other is to encourage them to donate their blood. Designed with the image of an arm, a red charging cord runs from the poster—making it look like blood is being drawn from it.

‘The Last Billboard’ is a 36-foot-long billboard located at the corner of Highland and Baum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Unlike your usual billboards advertising clothing and jewelry, it is free to anyone who wants to use it. Every month, a different individual is invited to take over the billboard to broadcast personalized messages, which are spelt out using wooden letters that are changed by hand. This unusual premise has given rise to some creative and unorthodox messages such as “Intellect versus emotion. Intellect wins. Emotion starts crying” and “I wonder some days if Facebook isn’t a broad all encompassing cry for help.”

Honda claims that the water produced by its new hydrogen vehicle is pure enough to drink. The automotive manufacturer’s FCX Clarity vehicle runs on compressed hydrogen rather than diesel or petrol, and therefore produces no harmful emissions. On the contrary, the emissions it does produce take the form of pure water, which Honda claims is so pure it is drinkable.

NASA's Z-2 Suit is the newest prototype in its next-generation spacesuit platform, the Z-series. As a follow-up to the previous Z-1 suit, which was named one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2012, the Z-2 takes the next step in fidelity approaching a final flight-capable design. To take their designs to the next level NASA is leaving it up for the public to choose which of three concepts will be built.

Please review the three concepts below and make your selection. Voting is open through April 15, 2014 at 11:59pm EDT

The Pay-As-You-Feel Café in Leeds lets customers pay any amount they wish. The only catch is the food is past its sell-by date; it can’t be sold but is still perfectly safe to consume. Opened by chef Adam Smith, it aims to reduce food wastage by serving delicious and healthy meals cooked using ingredients discarded by other food establishments in the city. Besides offering a menu free of set prices, the café also has a ‘swap-shop’ facility where the public can donate waste food produce, and a vegetable garden where customers can help themselves to free food.

At the Garvey Food Court in downtown Chicago--a somewhat bleak place that Yelp reviewers call “sketchy” and even “scary”--there’s plenty of typical fast food fare. Dunkin Donuts, Popeyes, McDonalds, and other chains ring the hallway. But in the center of the food court, things are a little different: Last fall, an entrepreneur named Luke Saunders opened Farmer’s Fridge, a vending machine that sells fresh kale and strawberries instead of candy. Each morning, the machine is filled with freshly made salads and snacks packed in recyclable jars. The ingredients, carefully layered to stay crisp throughout the day, are all organic, and locally grown when possible.

While you were busy worrying about the NSA spying on you, artist -slash- software developer Lauren McCarthy made an app called Crowdpilot. It lets everybody spy on you.

The basic idea behind the iPhone app is to let people listen in on your phone calls so that they can offer you advice on what to say next.

If you’ve heard of Green Point, the trendy district in Capetown, South Africa, it’s likely you know it as beautiful seaside neighborhood that hosted the 2010 World Cup. A lesser-exposed side of Green Point is its homelessness problem. Two months ago, local copy writer Kayli Vee Levitan and ad agency art director Maximilian Pazak decided to try and do something to lessen the divide between Green Point’s elite and its exceptionally poor. The result of their effort, a collaboration between ad agency M&C Saatchi Abel and the Haven Night Shelter Welfare Organisation, a Green Point charity, is a “Street Store” that gives the affluent an easy place to donate and the homeless an opportunity to choose clothes that suit them.

Running over existing rail lines, the SkyCycle network could hold up to 12,000 cyclists an hour zipping to their destinations around town and transforming the cityscape.

The newly-opened Ziferblat café in London has an unusual business model–it charges customers by the minute instead of the items they order. Ziferblat is a Russian café chain, and currently has 10 outlets in Russia. Instead of paying for items, customers pay for the space and comfort. It charges 3 pence per minute; the average cost of a cappuccino at a typical café is £2.65, which works out to about 90 minutes that a person can spend there. The vibe is warm and convivial and the place feels like a friend’s cozy apartment–there is a piano for people to play, a self serve espresso machine, a cupboard with cookies, and a fridge with milk.

New Yorkers recently braved record low temperatures and massive snowfall during the polar vortex earlier this month, and this didn’t escape the attention of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau in Florida. To get New Yorkers to visit Florida during the winter, the Florida tourism board recently installed a heated bus stop as part of its ‘The Beach Looks Good on You’ campaign. Commuters can lounge on beach-inspired benches and will receive free sunglasses and Metro cards.

Banks are utilizing social media as a way to build upon the community-minded philosophy that they have spent years developing.

Swivel is the first virtual Try-On system that allows shoppers to see how clothes and accessories look on them in real-time, at home or in-store.

Apt use of gamification, and it works. The British Healthcare System Is Asking Patients To Flee From Zombie Hordes To Get Fit. Since its launch in 2011, Zombies, Run has become one of the most popular fitness apps, with users logging logging 6.8 million miles. Now Britain’s National Health Service is prescribing the app to patients.

Finnish airport management company Finavia has recently launched its TravelLab Project at Helsinki Airport. The initiative tests out new services that are designed to make traveling through the airport less stressful and more interesting for passengers, especially transfer passengers who may need to stay longer in the airport to wait for their connecting flights. The TravelLab project includes concepts and services like yoga and pilates classes for passengers, a Finnish-themed backdrop where travelers can take their selfies, pop-up restaurants that give diners a “Taste of Finland,” a crash-course on Finnish coffee culture, and more.

Brazilian fast food chain Giraffas noticed that about 90% of customers play with their smartphones while enjoying their food, so the company has come up with their own creative version of an in-table entertainment. They designed a special tray paper that can integrate with the screen of a smart device and allow the users to play a soccer game with the tray as the soccer field.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing an audio reading device to be worn on the index finger of people whose vision is impaired, giving them affordable and immediate access to printed words.

Pepsi launches new interactive vending kiosk for World Cup season

A group of French industrial and interactive design students from Lausanne's ECAL school are toying with a compelling question: As our homes become more intelligent, will the machines eventually get a mind of their own? Their experimental answer is the Delirious Home, an exhibit that opened this week at Milan Design Week. The Delirious Home, is laden with sensors and responsive gadgets to mimic the connected home of the future, but here the products aren't simply meant to streamline your life. Instead, they offer a humorous turn on how we relate to our objects.

A smart phone printed on a t-shirt? It is possible with the new "spaser" technology that might be able to create not only small and efficient mobile phones but also flexible enough to be imprinted on cloth.

Created by Aisen Caro Chacin, the Scent Rhythm watch is a wrist-mounted timepiece that emits unique aromas at different times of the day, allowing you to not just tell the passage of time, but to smell it.

Gone are the cluttered columns of the Facebook homepage, with text and photos fighting for attention as you scroll. Paper puts them at center stage, making the most of the full screen space they receive. Paper is the latest smartphone app from the world’s largest social network, which has a miss-and-miss-again history when it comes to apps. It’s a mobile version of the social network’s News Feed, but serves as more than just an extension to the social network – it’s a complete re-imagining of the Facebook feed.

Artist Tomás Saraceno’s latest installation entitled ‘In Orbit’ is a playground that allows people to experience what it’s like to walk ‘on air’. Inspired by spider-webs, it is made of steel cable nets spanning 2,500 square meters and is suspended four levels above ground.

The iPhone is fantastic, but there’s a future waiting for us beyond touchscreens. It’s a place where bits and bricks combine, where the ethereal digital world becomes corporeal, where we can see and feel information manifested in real mass.

Whether it's extending the shelf life of produce through special paper or finding new (and incredibly dangerous) ways to cook our food, we've got a lot to look forward to in 2014.

A village in the heart of Jakarta, known as """"Banana Republic, is raising awareness and money online. Jeremy, a Jakarta resident who works in the advertising industry and is originally from Singapore, has listed the Banana Republic on Airbnb, inviting guests all over the world to share the hut of a local family for just $10 a night.

Recently developed cyberskin will one day give robots a sense of touch, and humans enhanced perception. When it does, we’ll need to be prepared for the ethical questions that come with it.

Somewhere out there is a world where you don't have to wait in line for coffee — where you don't have to get stampeded by caffeine addicts, where all you have to do is yawn, and magically, your warm cup of joe is there waiting for you. You're safe and you're satisfied. Dreaming? Well, Dutch coffee company Douwe Egberts, as part of a new campaign, is making those dreams come true.

A computer program that can mimic the abstract portrait drawings of specific artists has been built by experts at Disney Research.

Headset Heightens Human Senses In Real-Time. Royal College of Art students have built Eidos, a range of sensory augmentation equipment that can enhance sight and sound through two different headsets in the same way consumers would adjust their settings on TV or radio.

Now, smart pen that vibrates when you make spelling error.

Wallace and Gromit-style trousers that let you walk on the ceiling could work, according to researchers. A team at the University of Leicester claim that it is technically possible for such an invention to work. The techno trousers like the ones featured in Wallace & Gromit's Wrong Trousers could function for about 20 minutes.

The Smile TV, created by design graduate David Hedberg, may look like an ordinary, retro-inspired television—but it only works when you smile at it.

When its facial-recognition software detects the user’s smiling face, the television changes its fuzzy screen to reveal a looping content of musical clips and random action scenes. To watch an uninterrupted broadcast on the Smile TV, viewers need to smile continuously at it.

Los Angeles restaurant Not a Burger Stand has made food ordering more fun by making their customers imitate the voices of popular characters.

Customers who take up the challenge gets ten percent off their bill.

Would you take up the challenge?

Every year, the average American throws out around 70 pounds of clothing and other textiles like shoes and sheets. Part of the problem is the fact that clothes are so cheap that it's easier to replace something than repair it if a piece happens to tear. Many of us no longer even know how to sew; one survey in the U.K. found that 7 in 10 young adults couldn’t even sew on a button, let alone make a more complicated repair.

Your thoughts on this Future Travel Trend?

UK-based food designers Bompas and Parr partnered Vodafone to create a fireworks display that can actually be eaten. Dubbed as the “world’s first multi-sensory firework display”, it was fired on New Year’s eve over the Thames River, releasing “peach snow, banana confetti, strawberry some and giant ‘zesty orange’ bubbles” when the fireworks exploded in the sky.

Composer Johnnyrandom is on a mission to change the way you hear the world, using only a bicycle and its parts.

The artist created an entire musical composition without using any traditional instruments. Instead, he tuned his spokes and plucked them with guitar picks, struck his tires and sprocket with mallets, and even implemented an ebow, which uses an electromagnetic field to vibrate metal objects, such as guitar strings — or in this case, brake lines.

Robot Turtles is a board game designed by entrepreneur and CEO of Google Comparison Dan Shapiro. The board game is designed to teach basic programming principles via a series of instruction cards which move the players’ pieces (turtles) around the board.

Most of the people are scared of hospitals and children are even more fearful! New York City children’s hospital aims to reduce this fear factor by setting up a pirate-themed CAT Scan Machine.

The Ostrich Pillow, by Studio Banana Things, is a super comfortable wraparound pillow for your head that allows you to nap anywhere you want.

If you have trouble resisting the impulse to check your smartphone while you’re out with friends or having dinner on a date, this table might help: By literally strapping two people together for the duration of the meal, it forces them to pay attention to each other. The table for two is a cross between a napkin and a picnic blanket. Each diner attaches one end of the table to themselves with a strap, and then the fabric stretches in between, making a surface that holds plates, drinks, and silverware with a little bit of balancing. After you're done, everything folds up into a small portable case.

The literary traditions of London are rich. So is the tradition of needing a place to sit after hours of enduring the city's crowded streets and busy transit system. The National Literacy Trust partnered with public art organization Wild in Art over the summer to bring those two fine traditions together--with the help of some of the U.K.'s more notable artists. The result is the "BookBench," a series of sculptures placed in 50 different locations around the city, that resemble paperback books with the front section folded over--a full-sized, functional bench that reminds passersby and potential sitters of the worlds to be found within the pages of a book.

To encourage recycling, Coca-Cola teamed up with agency Grey Dhaka to create an arcade game that is powered by empty plastic bottles. Called the ‘Happiness Arcade’, it was placed in six different locations around Dhaka, Bangladesh, over a period of six days.

To play, users simply insert an empty plastic bottle into the machine, and it will boot a Pong-like video game.

To prevent social media addicts from checking Facebook and Instagram every few seconds, Coca-Cola has designed a special ‘Social Media Guard’. Shaped like a pet cone, it is colored red after the brand and addicts are supposed to wear it around their necks, which will prevent them from checking their phones.

The “Living Wallet” is a fun and quirky solution that will quite literally keep spendthrifts from spending too much. Synced with a book keeping app called “Zaim”, this wallet keeps track of your spending habits, and goes into “Save Mode” when the user has exceeded his spending limit. In this mode, the wallet will scuttle away when the owner tries to reach for it, even screaming for help when caught. As a last resort, the wallet will even call the owner’s mother to curb his spending habits.

Filmmaker Brent Hoff's current project, the Emotional Arcade, pits regular people in a competition to experience emotions as strongly as they can, while monitoring their brain activity. Once you've worked yourself into a boiling rage, a peaceful bliss or a meditative chill? You get a lollipop. The Emotional Arcade is a blend of art, neuroscience and technology. According to Hoff, it's a portable version of earlier films he's made.

Long gone are the days of parents telling their kids not to take candy from strangers. In the 21st century, would-be predators use digital lures. So French agency Rosapark, has created a "real-life emoji" campaign for nonprofit group Innocence en Danger that's meant to scare the bejeezus out of children who might enter into dangerous online relationships.

To drive more people to its website, Mexican free newspaper Mas Por Mas rigged some paper towel dispensers to print out the latest real-time news. Working together with agency FCB Mexico, they installed printers inside selected paper towel dispensers, and connected them via WiFi to the paper’s daily newsfeed. Each time the dispensers detected a person’s hand, they would print out the latest news on the paper towels. Using special powered ink, the printed news won’t leave any stains on the person’s hands. On each print-out is also a QR code that directs people to the newspaper’s website.

Eating is about more than just the taste of the food in our mouths, and the experience can be enhanced or tainted by a whole range of factors, from atmosphere and ambience to dining partner. NY-based artist Emilie Blatz has now created Lickestra to take advantage of just that, demonstrating ice cream that acts as a musical instrument when it’s licked.

To encourage moviegoers to really shut the hell up during the show, Coca-Cola and agency Saatchi & Saatchi Denmark decided to take the usual "be quiet and turn off your phones" PSA that precedes most movies to a new level. Using a green screen, hidden cameras, and some quick editing, they took footage of loud-slurping, phone-jabbering filmgoers and edited them into some fake movie trailers that played before the Copenhagen premiere of Anchorman 2.

Nearby, a computer image of a butterfly slowly moves its wings, causing the leaf it's perched on to sway. As you reach out, the projection flutters and jumps onto you. You feel a touch, and as you lift your hand to see what's happening you feel it moving up your arm. The invention that makes this illusion possible is called Aireal.

Paintball gun that fires when you tweet a certain hashtag.

Chrome Experiment turns any website into a 3D maze that you can play in.

Google Starts Testing Google Shopping Express In SF, With Free Delivery From Target, Walgreens, Staples and more.

State Farm Insurance engaged IDEO to design Next Door, a community-focused learning center that offers free, no-pressure financial coaching to consumers.

Ogawa has created an interactive poster that kisses you when you come close!

Vending machines turn social. Pepsi leads the way.

"Coffitivity" as a design response to research on work and creativity--at the intersection of art/experience, work, consumer behavior.

Costa Rican campaign Closet S.O.S. is delivering a mini store on wheels to anyone in need of a new outfit at the last minute. Created by marketing agency Ogilvy & Mather as a promotion for the opening of the third Forever 21 fashion store in Costa Rica, the company offered the service to the first 100 fans turning up at the unveiling of the new branch. The lucky attendees were given a cell number they could ring whenever they found themselves requiring some new threads. Regardless of their location, a Forever 21 van stocked with some of its latest collections arrived in response to the call, enabling participants to browse and buy some new clothes.

British Airways, the airline that pioneered the flat-bed seats in the 1990s, has taken the business of in-flight sleep to its next level: The airline has developed a blanket to analyze the "meditative state" of premium cabin fliers. The wool "happiness blanket" is embedded with tiny fiber-optic LEDs that change color based on brainwaves transmitted via Bluetooth from a band worn on a passenger's head. Blue signifies calm, peace and relaxation, and is seen most often when the person is sleeping deeply. The blanket displays crimson when the passenger feels stressed or anxious.

Will 2025 finally bring us the flying car?

Not only could it bring us something like it, but the aircraft will also probably be powered by solar energy.

That’s according to a thought exercise by two analysts with the IP & Science business of Thomson Reuters. They scoured scientific literature and patent records to identify the biggest and most impactful research areas. By probing the innovative work underway in different sectors, they came up with the following predictions about what life will be like in 2025.

Taylor Swift's op-ed of WSJ has interesting insights for the future of Entertainment Here are top 5 as listed down by Business Insider :

• I haven't been asked for an autograph since the invention of the iPhone with a front-facing camera. The only memento "kids these days" want is a selfie.
• A friend of mine, who is an actress, told me that when the casting for her recent movie came down to two actresses, the casting director chose the actress with more Twitter followers.
• In the future, artists will get record deals because they have fans-not the other way around.
• Another theme I see fading into the gray is genre distinction. These days, nothing great you hear on the radio seems to come from just one musical influence.
  • I think forming a bond with fans in the future will come in the form of constantly providing them with the element of surprise. No, I did not say "shock"; I said "surprise." I believe couples can stay in love for decades if they just continue to surprise each other, so why can't this love affair exist between an artist and their fans?

Future of Wellness Report by ICE

In tattoo parlors and basements around the world, people are turning themselves into cyborgs by embedding magnets and computer chips directly into their bodies.

A Beautiful Mind: Can Ariel Garten's Brain Wave Interface Improve Your Outlook On Life?

Last month, a graduate student by the name of Josh Treuhaft set up the Salvage Supperclub in New York City—an establishment where diners pay US$50 to eat a six course meal made from food scraps salvaged from the dumpster. Chefs from the Natural Gourmet Institute created dishes using overripe fruits and vegetables that would normally be thrown away, calling into question what we perceive as waste.

What do you think—would you eat at this restaurant, or is this idea too disgusting to contemplate?

Hearing loss affects a huge number of people, and not just the elderly. Those who often attend rock concerts or listen to music at a loud volume on their headphones can often lose aural dexterity, making hard to hear in certain situations. Soundhawk is a device designed for anyone to improve their hearing in loud environments by helping them to tune into the sounds they want to hear.

The social network's struggle to woo kids isn't because it's also their parents' favorite social network.

Plenty of research has suggested immersing yourself in nature has significant mental and physical health benefits. But can it also make you a better person? New research from France suggests it just might.

By 2017, millennials will have more buying power than any other generation. But so far, they're not spending like their parents did.

Recent field research conducted at Intel shows that people are ready to move beyond current modes of device interaction into new, more natural computing experiences, where wires, plugs and complicated passwords are replaced by new technologies such as wireless charging, gesture and voice commands.

Pop Chart Lab has created an impressive chart that documents the progression of graphic design, from the Victorian era into the modern digital age. Titled ‘A Stylistic Survey of Graphic Design’, it highlights nearly 200 years of graphic design history.

Do you want to be a graphic designer or have you already embarked on your graphic design career? Logo design online business Logo Design Guru has created an infographic titled “The Profile of A Successful Graphic Designer”, that presents a “snapshot of what it means to be a graphic designer”.

Florida-based data company Fractl has created a webpage that tracks and measures what goes on in cyberspace every second.

Called ‘The Content Explosion’, the site states that in each second, 1.6 websites are created, over 1.3 million spam emails are sent, and 4,051 photos are posted on Facebook.

Mobile phones emerging as strong alternative to television in India, says VuClip

People are living longer than ever, thanks to better living conditions and advancements in healthcare. If you’ve ever wondered what traits the world’s oldest people have in common, look no further than this infographic by Top Colleges Online.

A short history of anti-barbies and a question for us, "Why could they never survive the barbie competition?"

Share your views on this interesting article by The New York Times.

You might assume that all web traffic is generated by actual people browsing the internet, but actually you would be wrong. In fact, statistically the human race is now a minority on the internet. Does this mean your pets are browsing the internet while you’re asleep? No! What it does mean is that now a days, bots are generating more internet traffic than humans.

Many choose to look the other way when they see trash washed up on shore, but not David Katz – this entrepreneur is compelled to take action against plastic pollution and restore some green integrity in developing nations. His organization, Plastic Bank, has plans to incentivize garbage collection, setting up a “currency” that’s not backed by gold, but by plastic pollution and recyclable waste.

The latest version of Mogl's app allows users to directly donate money to food banks every time they eat out at participating restaurants. Participants get 10% cash back for dining at Mogl-friendly locations--and then get to choose how much of that money they want to donate. Just 20 cents buys a single meal for the hungry. There are thousands of restaurants currently working with the service. Mogl is currently available only in the USA.

Buying new clothes online is always a hit and miss affair when it comes to sizing or fit, but even trying items on in a high street store sometimes isn’t long enough either. To ensure customers’ clothes are definitely right for them, Japan’s Fast Retailing Co has opened a store with its GU Fitting service, which enables visitors to take clothes away for an entire day before returning to give them back or pay.

Most online identity security today is based on what you know (like a password, social security number, or mother’s maiden name) or something you have (like a code sent to your mobile device, fingerprint, or voice pattern).

But what if you could prove your identity without doing anything at all? That’s the idea behind Biocatch, a startup that’s observing people’s online behaviors and creating a unique signature for each account holder.

Imagine a content sharing app that compels users to focus on what is being shared rather than who is sharing. That’s the premise behind the fresh new app, OnStaged, which allows thoughts to be shared to an entire social community. A vision of two Microsoft designers, Allan Jiang and Leo Li, OnStaged provides a Twitter-like 140-character post, however, rather than being released to just followers, your thoughts, ideas and photos will have the opportunity to reach all the users in the community.

You know texting while driving is bad. You know texting in the movie theater is bad. Volkswagen wants to remind you of both. The car company ran an interactive PSA called "Eyes on the Road" at a movie theater in Hong Kong recently. The ad begins with a first-person perspective of driving a car on an empty road. The theater then uses a location-based broadcaster to send texts to the moviegoers, while the driving footage continues to play. While audience members are busy checking their phones, the vehicle on-screen crashes, jolting the crowd into realizing their texting and driving mistake.

If you are traveling by train in Northern Japan, you can literally pay your train fare by using the packaging of chocolate wafer bar KitKat. The initiative is part of confectionery brand Nestlé’s innovative efforts to breathe new life into the tourism of the Sanriku region, which was ravaged by a tsunami and earthquake three years ago. A first for a Japanese rail company, train travelers of the Sanriku Railway network can purchase the special packs of KitKat at a cheaper cost than standard train tickets. In line with the reconstruction endeavor, KitKat has also adorned two trains and two train stations with cherry blossoms paintings symbolizing hope.

Urban Engines uses algorithms to help cities determine key congestion choke points and times, and can then reward commuters for avoiding them. The Urban Engines system is based on commuters using the smart commuter cards already found in many major cities. The company tracks journeys made with those commuter cards, and uses that data to identify main areas of congestion, and at what times the congestion occurs. The system has already been employed in Washington, D.C, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, helping provide valuable data for work with city planners.

Sadvertising. What is it? And why there are more tears on the way ahead?

A new service in Brazil called Speaking Exchange is enables students to practise their English through video chats with US seniors in retirement homes, who benefit from regular conversation. This platform provides young students an opportunity to converse with senior citizens of native English speaking countries. The scheme also enables elderly residents of retirement homes to have a chat with someone new.

Photographers have had extremely image heavy websites for years and designers’ websites have always shown off their distinct look. Professionals that work in sound, though, have put their work back behind imagery or text, due to the largely silent nature of the web. Croacia Audio has decided to make a sound only website, since sound is their business. If you decide to check out Croacia Audio’s site at the office, you might want to put headphones in first, because as soon as the page loads a big male voice starts explaining the site out of your speakers.

It happens about once or twice a year. I travel over to my mother’s house for a visit and, about two or three hours in, she says something like “Hey, can you take a look at my computer? I just want to make sure everything is okay with it. You know I don’t know what I’m doing.” She’s right. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.

When you hear the word ‘penthouse’ it suggests an opulent apartment at the highest level of the equally opulent building, right? Wrong. Well, not in this case. Luxury design companies are taking the word VIP and flipping it on its head with these new cabin design ideas bringing on-land living standards to air travel. Boeing and Airbus Jets are now being seen as blank canvases for luxury design companies and specialists to take and make over, creating lavish interiors for the needs of their clients, whether it be an office space, a place to rest or a place to socialize. Transportation is getting a serious makeover.

While tablets and mobile devices have fundamentally changed the way we consume articles and news stories, for many, there’s still nothing like the feeling of physical printed media. Looking to tap into that demand, PaperLater enables users to save material from the web and have it delivered in a personalized newspaper. PaperLater is a new startup from UK-based Newspaper Club, who specialize in creating custom newspapers on-demand. To use the service, readers simply click a “Save for PaperLater” bookmarklet when viewing an article online. When they feel they have enough articles saved, they can click to confirm their order, at which point their saved stories are analyzed by algorithms which design and format the personalized newspaper. It will then be delivered through the reader’s letter box three to five working days later in a card backed envelope.

Honest taxi drivers of the world generally aim for a journey to be as short as possible, but there is a new service in Japan called Turtle Taxi that acknowledges not everyone is in a rush. Customers can press a button in the back of the cab that signals the driver to slow down, making for a ride that is safer, more relaxing, and less harmful to the environment. Ironically, the idea is quickly gaining popularity, which could see the company expand to other cities around Japan soon.

Print posters get a digital makeover: Feel Flavor explores synesthesia via touch-sensitive inks linked to popular spices.

21 examples of user experience innovation in ecommerce.

Spike Aerospace is in the midst of building the first supersonic private jet. And when the $80 million S-512 takes off in December 2018, it won’t have something you’d find on every other passenger aircraft: windows. The Boston-based aerospace firm is taking advantage of recent advances in video recording, live-streaming, and display technology with an interior that replaces the windows with massive, high-def screens.

Changing user experience in hotels: Room service innovations

People will soon crave the ultrafast communication that Google Glass makes possible

Remapping the world - Foursquare is working on an ambitious project to remap the world.

Device that will adapt to your use patterns over time and gives you exactly the features you needed.

The Lytro camera lets you adjust the focus of an image after you've taken the picture.

Vittra, which operates 30 schools in Sweden, is seeking to ensure learning takes place everywhere on campus by eliminating classrooms altogether.

Lovotics introduces a new generation of robots, with the ability to love and be loved by humans.

LG opens its Game World to deliver games as apps on Smart TVs.

Online fashion store SENSE lets you buy designer clothes straight from a music video

The 10 Most Important Work Skills in 2020

If you are one of those innumerable long distance lovers who always wished being able to feel your love despite being online, guess what? Your prayers have been answered!

You will soon be able to do it using video services like Skype or Google hangout. Scientists have created a wireless accessory — Frebble — which lets you hold your partner’s hand from anywhere in the world. Frebble can be used alongside video chat services such as Skype so that people can see, hear and feel each other.

The truck drivers of the future may not drive much at all. A new self-driving truck from Daimler takes care of pretty much everything on the highway, so after pulling onto the road and pushing a button, a driver can swivel away from the steering wheel, turn on a tablet, and work on something else.

Jimmy the robot is a customisable humanoid machine by Intel that can walk talk and tweet, all you need is a 3D printer

If your diary isn't already overflowing with overwrought entries about your latest breakup or your writing professor has criticized the cold, soulless tone of your prose, or your friends say that you lack of emotional honesty, then you'd do well to try out Onion Note, a notebook that makes your cry when you write in it.

By the year 2050, the world’s population is projected to swell to 9 billion. 80% of us will be urban-dwellers. Demand from developing countries for a wider range of foods is on the rise. Experts estimate that we will need new farmland larger than the size of Brazil to produce enough to meet the demands of growing populations. Food security therefore represents one of the single biggest challenges of our future, with environmental, economic, political, and lifestyle implications.

How will we fix our broken and unsustainable systems of industrial food production to serve the needs of an ever-growing planet? In what ways will we rethink food via new practices and new technologies? This latest report from the Institute for Customer Experience considers how we are re-imagining our food practices in order to project anew our collective, global future.

So-called "smart" cities and communities are sprouting around the world, from the urban laboratory that is the Spanish port city of Santander to a huge residential energy research project that has been running for years in Austin, Texas. Now a new “quantified community” built from scratch is taking shape, and it’s on the biggest stage yet: The Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate project ever in the United States, which began construction on Manhattan’s underdeveloped West Side last year. Everyone who passes through New York City's Hudson Yards development will contribute data to a project intended to help plan cities of the future.

Among some of the world’s top corporate leaders, there’s a growing understanding that traditional business models—built on the presumption of unlimited and cheap natural resources—must be reworked for 21st century realities. The circular economy represents a markedly different way of doing business, replacing established practices like planned obsolescence with new approaches to generating profits. This report examines how brands from Puma and Ford to Ikea and Starbucks are becoming more circular, why this concept is gaining more adherents now and implications for brands. The circular economy is an important topic not only because the approach is far better for the planet but also because tapping into its principles may well be essential to long-term competitiveness.

Artist Lauren McCarthy's Facebook Mood Manipulator — an IRL Chrome browser extension that lets you filter your OWN Facebook feed — cutting out the middle man by letting you select what content you'd like to see and by extension what people you'd like to ignore forevz.

Scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have developed a scalable, next-generation platelet bioreactor to generate fully functional human platelets in vitro. The work is a major biomedical advancement that will help address blood transfusion needs worldwide

Mobile operator StarHub’s #4Good campaign enables customers to gift excess data from their monthly tariffs to projects using technology for positive causes.

The latest anxiety faced by social media users is MoMo - the paranoia that stems from your friends not posting anything at all. Are they having so much fun that they can't even share it?

As part of their ‘#TDThanksYou’ campaign, Canadian bank TD Canada Trust converted some of their ATMs into ‘Automated Thanking Machines’ that dispenses gifts.

Instead of cash, the machine dispensed gifts such as bouquets of flowers, clothes and air-tickets to the visibly puzzled-turned-shocked recipients.

Meadowhall shopping center in Sheffield, UK, has created fast and slow lanes to ensure customers aren’t held up by dawdlers. The idea is a simple way to enable customers to make their way through the center more quickly, providing a better experience and also helping them fit more shopping into their visit.

Following its plan to expand M-PESA services Pan India, Vodafone India rolled out its services in Gujarat recently, reports Business Line. As per the reports, the company is targeting the USD 60 Bn money transfer market in the country along with the government benefits transfer market worth USD 55 Bn.

China has 2 million people working as online monitors, according to a report last week by state news publication Beijing News — a new estimate that reveals the breadth of the country’s massive online censorship and surveillance systems. The monitors, who scour online comments and compile reports for officials or private businesses, outnumber even China’s 1.5 million active military personnel. Does this mark a shift to digital warfare as well?

According to online Japanese news source RocketNews24, McDonald’s launched a trio of luxury burgers early last month in Japan. Each of the burgers in the ‘Quarter Pounder Jewelry’ series cost ¥1,000 (about US$10) without a meal (fries and soda not included)—but each includes quality ingredients, such as thickly-sliced pineapple and bacon, Monterey jack cheese, black truffle sauce, chorizo, and avocado. To match up to the quality of the premium burgers, the fast-food giant also packed them in exquisite-looking minimalistic packaging.

Flowchart that helps you decide if you should upload a particular picture onto Facebook, so as to prevent you from getting into embarrassing social media situations.

The emergence of young female tech founders and executives reflects sweeping change in the world of start-up companies and angel funding.

6 Startups Pioneering Interactive Education for Kids. In an effort to transform teaching and learning, educational technology entrepreneurs showcased their innovative ideas at the LAUNCH Education and Kids Conference in Mountain View, Calif., on June 26 and 27.

As men take on more household shopping, Nielsen spotlights some differences and similarities between male and female shoppers

Google’s Dead-Simple Tool For Making UX Decisions: 2 Jars Of Marbles

Google has partnered with the Indian Ministry of Culture and the Archeological Survey of India to bring Street View to over 100 monuments in the country, providing a 360-degree view of these structures that will be available to anyone with access to the Internet. The project began on Thursday.

Facebook is taking its most-utilized feature, News Feed, into the future by invoking newspaper- and magazine-style layouts of the past

Tap the back of your phone or tablet, and that registers a hit on-screen, enabling you to manipulate apps or perhaps type.

New keyboard concept has more in common with so-called index typewriters, it offers a more economic layout.

Experience designers are using Journey Modelling to tell the story of a relationship over time, between an individual and a system, service, product, brand, or organization.

People feel compelled to turn off electronic gadgets in order to have a break and not be controlled by technology.

The Future Of UX Design: Tiny, Humanizing Details Designer Dan Saffer's new book Microinteractions, makes the case that design is in the details-the very small details that make systems friendlier.